Thursday Poetry Forms (Poetry for Dummies) Week 21

Welcome back to the first Poetry Forms post of the new year! Of course I hope that you celebrated with A Glass of Bubbly and that you have started 2012 with good spirit and hope for better days!

Me, I am CC Champagne and I do my best to help guide you through the labyrinth that is poetry forms every Thursday in the Gooseberry Garden. As I have spent two glorious weeks on holiday just now I thought I'd try to figure out a more exotic poetry form this week, and I hope you'll join in and correct me if I get it wrong. I am heading into completely unchartered waters now.

Luc bat is a Vietnamese poetry form, that in its basic form is built on a six/eight syllable count. Since I'm starting to feel more comfortable about the whole counting syllable thing, and because I really liked the example poem I thought you might find it interesting to to go off the beaten track. I will start off by saying that I don't speak Vietnamese, and will therefore completely ignore the various tone rules that seem applicable only in the original language.

• Begins with a six syllable line
• Alternates lines between six and eight syllables.
• Ends with an eight syllable line.
• Last (sixth) syllable in line 1 rhymes with the sixth syllable in line 2 AND
• The eighth syllable in line 2 rhymes with the sixth syllable in line 3.

Does that sound complicated? Perhaps a visual would be of assistance:

1. X X X X X A

2. X X X X X A X B

3. X X X X X B

4. X X X X X B X C

5. X X X X X C

etc.

I enjoy the internal rhymes of this form, and I might very well try it out myself when I have a quiet moment again. You can make the poem as long or short as you like, as long as you end it on an eight syllable line.

The example Wikipedia gives, and that I thoroughly enjoyed was this poem, by an unknown poet:

The grand untarnished sea -

How glorious for me and you

To wander as we do

Along its beach and through the tide!

How can I harbor pride

Now walking here beside the shore?

Can you, my love, ignore

The sigh, forevermore to dwell

Within our glassy shell?

The gleaming stars, which fell to earth -

What was their glory worth

Beside the gentle birth of life?

What need have we for strife?

The two of us, dear wife, are free!

I say goodbye for now, hope you have a great week and encourage you to join the wonderful Kay at the Poetry Picnic Week 20, where the theme for this week is Fairytales, My First Time, Hope and New Year's Resolutions. Perhaps I'll see you there? Or next week back here!

*Cheers*